Rosettes
by shotelle
Summary: Following an incident at an abandoned lab, Roy Mustang and Riza Hawkeye undergo some frightening and unusual changes. Royai. Chimera!Roy & Chimera!Riza.
1. Chapter 1

I am not Arakawa, so don't shoot! I don't own FMA :(

Giving this a go so please be kind. :)

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The room was a smoggy, low lit kind of affair with untidy swirls of mist carpeting the floor. Dirty chains hung from the wall like poisonous, hungry vines and the damp, acrid odour assaulted the nose full force.

Roy Mustang, together with his team, pushed farther into the grey space, all guns trained on the dark, assailant-friendly corners. A sniff from the troops here and there was the only sound that filled the space. Even footfalls were lost in the smothering fog and stench.

As Hawkeye inched forward she made sure to keep half an eye on Mustang as he made his way cautiously along the other wall. His face was set grimly, but it didn't take an alchemist to know that an unnatural air filled the room. They had been charged with securing a chimera ring's abandoned hideout. The rogue group of alchemists, known charmingly as _The Splicers_, had gained something of a reputation across the eastern region. Kidnapping nameless streetkids was the least of their crimes. It was what they did with those kids that counted...

Every warehouse that had been rumbled so far was filled with a mesh of half decayed monstrosities: humans-come-something else. It was exactly this situation that the team expected to find, and they weren't looking forward to it.

'Gn'aw,' Havoc grumbled, holding a sleeve to his nose and mouth, 'What's that smell?'

A couple of the other men reacted in kind. Mustang coughed and conducted a quick scan – as much as he could – across the murk.

'Well, it's not a candy floss stand, that's for certain,' he said, turning his lip up in disgust.

A short silence followed before the room was shaken with a pained, bone-chilling roar. Every soldier jumped in their skin, Kain Fuery emitting a light yelp of distress.

'What the hell was that?' Havoc asked in a breathy whisper.

Breda sidled up beside him nervously. 'It's a dog. I just know it is. I know it's going to be a dog. A huge, black, slabbering -'

'Quiet!' Mustang ordered firmly. 'There's no way that was a dog. Some kind of big cat maybe -'

The sound came again, more frantic this time. The room darkened a shade and seemed to grow even thicker with fog at the sound of that frightening howl.

'Over here...' The colonel mumbled and pushed forward bravely, despite the alchemist in him squirming for all he was worth.

Passing a partition, he stopped dead at the site before him.

The smaller room was a mess of black blood and tissue strewn across the floor. Thick, knotted masses clung to the wall and barely perceivable through the mist was a hand here and a dirtied, dismembered paw there. Peering outward from the mess were a pair of chillingly yellow eyes. The eyes blinked heavily and a shape emerged, chains rattling dully behind it.

It was a leopard, and judging by its bloody muzzle, the agent of the mangled disaster of limbs, fingers and fur. Despite its wasted appearance and matted, unattractive fur, it still looked like it could rip seven colours of shit from a grown man. The beast roared again, showing off ungodly fangs, coated in silvery spittle. The chains tethering it were thick, but that didn't stop the colonel from taking a step back, bumping into a shuddering Falman as he did.

'What in blue blazes...' the older man said, peering over his superior's shoulder.

'It must have killed the other specimens,' Hawkeye whispered, stepping up to join her leader at his side. 'But look-'

She pointed to the beast's belly and it was clear that even it hadn't managed to escape unscathed. It's stomach had been sliced open, probably by one of the smaller animals, and it bled lazily in thick, black ropes of blood.

'It doesn't look like it's been alchemically tampered with,' Mustang pondered aloud. 'At least it doesn't _look_ like there's any other animal in there.'

The animal rose to its feet now, swaying slightly, and fixed the alchemist with an oddly knowing, if pained, stare. It snorted through its nose and clawed at the floor.

Seconds later, it collapsed on its haunches again.

'We should put it out of its misery,' Mustang finally said, still compelled by those fierce eyes. He pulled his glove tighter on his hand, but was stopped by Hawkeye at his side.

'Allow me, sir.' The woman said, offering her gun. 'Quicker.'

The colonel looked uncertain for a moment but eventually nodded and allowed her to step past him.

The gunshot was a welcome sound compared to the screaming howls of the animal they had heard previously. It now lay limp, bullet wound to the head, and bled from its nose.

Hawkeye bent forward a little to better check that the animal was dead in the swirling, smoky damp when from its cover, a black shape shot out at her.

She yelled and tried to fall back, but the thing had already locked its teeth into her arm. A second leopard, black and clearly at death's door, had been lying there all the time. It's fangs sunk farther into the lieutenant's arm and she screamed this time, the pressure of the bite nearly unbearable.

'Lieutenant!' Mustang called and leapt forward in an instant.

Without thinking, he had his hands clasped tightly around the animal's thick muzzle as it growled and shook at his subordinate's arm. It wouldn't budge though. Swinging a leg over the beast, he tried again, pulling it backwards this time, but he still couldn't loosen its grip.

Hawkeye growled out her pain, the sound of her voice mingling with the animal's and that was all Mustang could take. Stepping back beside her, he held his hand aloft and snapped.

It was only then, as his flame alchemy chased away the darkness and damp mist, that everyone could see what they were standing on...

...A transmutation circle, and the colonel's alchemy had activated it. The small partition, with the colonel and lieutenant struggling inside, were lost in a sea of electric blue chaos.

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Reviews? Nope? Maybe? Go on... :)


	2. Chapter 2

I don't own fullmetal alchemist.

Chapter 2 is go! (guesses for what might happen...?)

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Havoc swept the air in front of him, trying his best to clear the smoke. The deafening roar had died away, leaving a ringing in his ears. Still though, it was hard to see anything through the dissipating fog.

'Colonel!' He called and his voice was echoed by the other men.

Eventually, a worn groan sounded from the darkness and it was unmistakably the colonel.

'Someone throw a light over here,' he barked.

The light found Mustang bent over Hawkeye who cradled her injured arm. He helped her up with some effort, his face souring when he saw the two puncture holes in her uniform.

'Goddamnit, lieutenant,' he breathed, and it wasn't an admonishment. Rather, his voice was filled with tired relief; the kind that followed a near disaster. Though...

'What happened? That light... what happened?' She asked, her voice trembling as much as her body was.

Mustang looked down at the floor but the circle had totally vanished.

The colonel curled his fingers tighter about the small frame of his lieutenant, 'You know... I have no idea.'

Hawkeye considered this with a grim nod before her eyes caught on what _did_ remain on the floor. There were two withered husks at their feet: the leopards. They were nothing more than skeletal frames now covered with papery, gray skin. Seconds after their eyes found them, they began to disintegrate, particles of dust floating up and away into the darkness.

XXX

With the lieutenant seen to by a doctor and the compound now secure, the colonel briefed his men on keeping the alchemical happening under wraps. The last thing he needed was the brass breathing down his neck while he tried to figure out just what exactly the array had achieved. With Ed and Al up north, he didn't have much peer support at his disposal. He _did_ consider keeping the event from Hughes, but he would call that particular shot when he actually faced the man.

Now, as he helped the freshly bandaged Hawkeye into her small apartment, he felt just about ready to collapse himself. She flicked on the light and stumbled forward a little before steadying herself. A few moments later, a sleepy Hayate slouched into the living space, sniffing the air as he went.

'Hey boy,' Hawkeye said, beckoning him forward with a few slaps to her thighs.

The small dog started towards her, continuing to sniff the air in the room. As he neared her, he broke into a half circle, following his nose until he reached Mustang. He blinked up at the colonel before huffing out a breath and slipping back to his mistress.

Hawkeye looked up as she petted the animal and her face fell immediately, 'Colonel – you're bleeding.'

Mustang looked a little dumbfounded before he raised the back of his hand to his nose. It came away bloody.

'Damn...' he muttered, 'the tiredness. It happens.'

Hawkeye approached him, plucking a box of tissues from the table as she went and pulled him towards the couch.

'Sit,' she said then rolled her eyes when both man and dog obeyed.

Holding the tissue to his nose, she couldn't help but avoid his deep, black eyes as they stared down at her. A mumble came from underneath the tissue. She removed it.

'Pardon?' She asked.

'You're scowling,' he repeated, his voice now thick with his blocked nose.

She smiled, looked down, then finally met those eyes. It had been a while since they were this close. She fought a shudder.

'So are you,' she smiled weakly.

'But I'm a man. It suits men. When you people scowl you just look like bit-'

He was promptly stopped as a fresh bunch of tissues were thrust against his face. The twinkle in his eyes though told her he was just being, well, Roy.

'By 'you people' you mean women?' She asked, patting Hayate distractedly as he nestled closer to her.

The colonel nodded slowly, eyes closed slightly through smiling.

'Very nice,' she deadpanned.

He merely shrugged then howled out a long, ragged yawn. Though he was painfully polite around his superiors, there was no room for decorum behind closed doors it seemed.

Finally, Hawkeye removed the wad of tissues from his face. Some blood had crusted on his top lip but other than that, the bleeding appeared to have stopped. Her eyes catching the blood again, she had the sudden urge that there was something she should have been doing about it. As if there was some duty she should perform to get rid of it. Not even realising she was compromising with the strange compulsion, she licked her thumb and wiped away the dry blood as the colonel struggled like a child.

'_Hawkeye_,' he whinged, though somewhere in the back of his mind was a strange sense of deja vu.

'Shh,' she chided, licking her thumb again to paw away the flakes of blood, 'you're all bloody.'

Mustang caught her wrist. 'Speaking of which,' he said, glancing down at her injured arm, 'shouldn't we be worrying more about that.'

Hawkeye had to force her eyes away from Mustang's elegant fingers wrapped around her wrist, 'N-no. The doctor said it was just a bite. He gave me my shots and some fresh dressing and other than that there's... sir?'

Mustang's sharp black eyes were focused intently on the twin holes in her jacket. He gently let go of her wrist and fingered at the sleeve, licking his lips as he went. Soon, his fingers had moved to her lapels, forcing off her jacket to expose the snug, brown polo underneath.

'Sir...!'

'Let me see it,' he whispered harshly, his fingers working back down to the now exposed bandage.

Something was pulsing in the air between them.

'Sir,' she repeated with a soft urgency as he moved to pull loose the bandage.

His fingers stopped dead. What was he doing?

'Sorry,' he said. He cleared his throat, 'Sorry.'

Hawkeye cast him an appraising look and then stood. 'I'll fetch some blankets for the couch.'

Mustang stood as well and though his face looked surprised and a little put out, he couldn't hide the flare of mischief at what her comment meant. 'What?'

Hawkeye smiled over her shoulder knowingly as she disappeared into the hall.

After watching her go, without thinking, Mustang ran his tongue over his top lip as he rumbled a low sound in his chest.

Hayate sniffed the air again, looking once at the colonel before following his mistress to see what she was up to.

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Al saves a kitten every time someone reviews! :D


	3. Chapter 3

FMA: I don't own it, I don't, I don't...

Thanks for reading guys!

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Hawkeye couldn't be sure when it was she first woke up, only that when she did, there was something else in the room with her. She sat bolt upright in bed and tried to quiet her breathing, waiting for her eyes to adjust to the darkness. She could hear a low, broken rumbling and after a moment of panicked thought, realised it was Hayate growling. As the darkness began to make sense to her, she could see the dog's white fur as he stood stock-still and facing forward at the bottom of the bed.

'Hayate?' She asked, squinting to see into the thick darkness.

That's when she saw the briefest flash of two green orbs in the space far in front of her. She swung her hand outward to slam on the button of her bedside lamp. Something grabbed her wrist.

The room, thrown into light, revealed Mustang who stood panting heavily, his hand still caught on her unharmed wrist. He was dressed in a white vest and pair of boxers only, and in the bright room Hawkeye saw a bead of sweat slide down his neck and across his collarbone.

Hayate quit his snarling and inched forward, tail between his legs. Seemingly, the poor thing was embarrassed that he had growled at a man he knew so well.

'Roy! What are you do-?'

'I couldn't sleep,' he said, his voice shaking slightly.

Hawkeye studied him. 'Are you okay?'

Mustang released her wrist and looked about him stupidly. Eventually, he met her eyes and offered her a sheepish smile.

'Yeah... yeah, of course. Just,' he paused to scrub nervously at the back of his head, 'the array, everything from tonight – my mind's racing.'

Hawkeye relaxed back against her pillow, 'You're not just saying that for a change of scenery are you?'

He smiled, 'Supposing I was... is it working?'

'No.'

'Good, because I'm telling the truth,' he said. His face became solemn again. 'I don't know... I couldn't sleep and then the next thing... I was just making my way here before I really knew what I was doing.'

'You think the transmutation from before has something to do with it?'

Mustang looked at Hayate briefly then back at Hawkeye. 'We'd be naïve to think it didn't.'

Hawkeye studied him for a long time and let the silence consume them. Again, she felt a strange, instinctual compulsion to help him, to comfort him somehow. She groaned and shifted over in the bed.

'Don't treat this like we're staying back with my father again – hands to yourself please.'

He granted her a cocky grin and climbed into bed next to her, 'Doesn't seem to be much point otherwise.'

She elbowed him sharply, the action eliciting an 'oompf' from the man. He turned off the light and with a few pats on the bed, beckoned Hayate towards him.

The dog took a couple of wary steps forward, then he paused and lowered himself to his belly. There he remained, eyes darting watchfully between his master and the man who lay next to her.

Hawkeye woke with the strangest sensation. Her injured wrist was tingling madly, surging with heat almost – a fierce, strong heat. She took a deep breath and immediately her head was filled with the musky scent of the body next to her. She stretched out her back and curled her toes in an exercise of sparking energy. Beside her, Mustang stirred, moved maybe by the same thing.

A low, dark sound echoed from his chest and he pressed his face against the pillow. His pale skin was glistening with sweat and his dark eyelashes fluttered as he was moved by a dream. Hawkeye couldn't quite put her finger on it, but he looked different somehow. He was never a guileless creature, but there was something even more overtly sexual about him at that moment. He groaned again, and this time, Hawkeye felt the vibrations through the bed – it was delicious.

Turning on her side, she drew closer to him and shuddered when his breath brushed against her face. What was she doing? They used to share moments like this all the time when they were younger, but those days were gone – placed on the shelf to make room for his goal. Now though – now he was irresistible.

She got even closer to him and relished the louder sound of his breathing. Her belly touched against his and sent an electric shock through her. Her tongue quivered against her lips and without a thought, she licked his face once. He smiled and turned his head slightly in his sleep.

She licked his face again, pulling herself closer to him. Then she licked his ear twice. This time he pushed his face against hers and pulled in a searching nose full of her scent. He moaned and nudged her, clearly missing her attentions.

This time, she nuzzled him back and it was only then, as she felt an alien humming in her chest, that she realised something was wrong. _Oh my god, did I just purr?_

'Oh my god,' she whispered. 'Roy.' She shook him once, but he didn't stir.

A high whimper came from across the room. Somehow through the darkness she perceived the small form of Black Hayate as he cowered against the door.

She pushed hard on Mustang's shoulder. 'Sir... wake up. Sir... oh...' Again, that strange feeling washed across her and against her better judgment, she knocked her face against his to rouse him. Her tongue was throbbing in her mouth, dying to return to its administrations.

'Sir...'

Did her voice sound different?

'Shhh Hawkeye... sleep...' The man murmured groggily and batted sloppily at her shoulder.

Hawkeye was about to snap when she felt a weird prickling around her bite mark. She glanced down and could have fainted at the sight.

The skin around the puncture holes had become distorted with an odd, yet familiar pattern of black splotches. Four imperfect rosettes had formed on her arm and there, in the space around the bite marks themselves, was a thin film of pale hairs.

Hayate barked and whimpered.

The array, the leopards – they had both been changed somehow, or she had at the very least. Panic rose in her but as it did, her instincts surged again to be closer to her partner. She wanted to hide against him and seek his comfort. She shook him, then confused, licked at his face again and again. Each time she did, she felt compelled to lie against him and have him return the gesture. Her stomach lurched.

'Sir!'

He woke with a start, panting slightly. He raised his hand to brush at the damp of his face from where she had been licking him.

'Sir... something's happening to... m-me...' she rasped, stuttering slightly on the last word. Her voice was certainly different – deeper.

The colonel looked startled for the barest moment before his eyes landed on her wounded arm. His expression changed instantly into one of yearning. He lifted her arm, and now unbalanced, she fell against his hard chest. He took one look at her – the smallest hint of what could be called fear in his eyes, but soon it had vanished, replaced by something more sensual. Craning his neck, he licked at her wound with an impossibly rough tongue. Then again, and again, a strange sounded throbbing all the while in his throat.

Hayate continued to scratch at the door in vain.

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Anyone care to review? Winry bakes an apple pie for each review given :)


	4. Chapter 4

Fullmetal Alchemist is not owned by Shotelle :p

Sorry for the late update everyone.

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Roy's eyes shot open. He knew almost immediately that the lights were off and yet, the items in the room stood out with strange clarity. Pushing the oddness of that observation to the side, he swatted clumsily at the bedside table for his pocket watch: it was past 4am. When had he dozed off? In fact, what the hell had happened?

He spun to the right and was met with the sight of Riza's blonde hair spilling over the pillow behind her. She was breathing steadily, the blankets rising and falling with the effort. Squinting in the dark, he tried his best to recall how they had both ended up in bed. They must have been more exhausted than he first thought when they left the lab. Still though, he wasn't exactly disappointed at the circumstances. Sharing a bed with Riza was no bad thing.

A small whimper from the corner drew his attention away from the woman next to him.

'Hayate?' He whispered, but the high, distressed whimper continued.

He sat up and grunted at how tired and tense his body felt. Slipping from the bed, he stumbled a little before he found his bearings. A few steps later, and he reached the corner where the door joined the wall to discover the small dog cowered with ears flat against his head.

'Hey boy,' he said softly, reaching out his hand to comfort the animal. In a split second, Hayate had shot forward to snap at the colonel before pushing his back against the wall again.

Roy withdrew his hand with sharp gasp and turned on his heel again to see if Riza had been disturbed. He swallowed thickly, seeing that she slept on, and wondered if he should wake her. He wanted to allow himself some time to think, and so as carefully as he could, he opened the door a tiny space while keeping an eye on Hayate to make sure he wouldn't bolt. With the dog apparently pinned by his stare, Mustang slipped out the door and closed it behind him.

He padded across the soft carpet of Riza's floor and had almost reached the bathroom when he tripped, seemingly over nothing.

'What the...?' he asked, pushing himself to standing again. Though even on his feet, he felt like he was about to collapse again at any moment. His calves trembled as he tripped the rest of the way to the bathroom, memories of the incident at the lab slowly seeping into his memory again.

Throwing on the light, he staggered up to the sink and leaned heavily against it. When he glanced up at the mirror, his heart almost stopped. Looking back at him were not his usual dark eyes, but instead, two brilliant yellow orbs. Each eye was lined with black and his pupil had been reduced to a tiny pinprick of black. He touched a hand to the mirror, his face pale with shock, and his mouth fell open further. His hands were evidently undergoing a transformation also. Each finger seemed at least half an inch shorter and his fingernails were darker and set deeply into his skin. He fell back from the mirror, only vaguely noting the slight sharpening of his incisors and ran out of the bathroom.

In a rush, every memory from the moment the array was activated to the odd, animal intimacy he shared with Riza in her bed, came back to him. _What the hell do I do?_ He wanted to wake Riza, but he knew he needed help.

'Hughes,' he grunted and made for the phone, half falling again as he went.

He dropped the phone once, his shorter fingers struggling with the handset before he managed to punch in the numbers. The phone rang for a long time and it seemed as though no one would pick up when a groggy voice came on the line.

'Hello?'

'Hughes!' Roy shouted, 'it's me. Mustaaa-' the Colonel coughed as his voice seemed to stick in his throat. 'Mustang.'

'Roy? Roy – what's wrong? Why are you – what's going on?' Hughes asked in a concerned whisper.

Roy was about to answer when a massive pain drove into his stomach. He groaned and dropped the phone, clutching a hand to his belly.

'Roy? Roy! Are you okay? Where are you? I'm coming – where are you?' Hughes shouted frantically into the phone.

Gathering himself as another huge pain slammed into his middle, Roy reached for the phone and was horrified to see his fingers were even shorter – by at least an inch. His fingernails had almost totally sunk beneath the skin of his fingertips.

'I didn't tell you, I'm sorry,' he ground out, his voice sounding deeper to his own ears, 'assignment – lab, ngh!'

Roy bit his lip as the same awful pain grabbed at his feet. The phone slipped from his malformed hand again, but rather than attempt to pick it up, he just leaned his face closer to it.

'Riza's house,' he gasped, 'get here. Changed... chi-'

His voice totally broke away and instead of finishing the word, the sound rumbled out in a low growl.

Roy took some small comfort that at least Hughes would know to make his way to them. In immense pain and struggling to keep his wits about him, Roy tried to stand again but only succeeded in half falling forward in a low crouch. As he did, muscles tightened further in his back, pulling him further and further to the floor. A terrible itch erupted in each palm and crashing to his knees, Roy held them in front of his new, sharper eyes. He saw, by the faint light streaming from the bathroom, _hair_ growing around strange, swollen mounds that were turning ever darker before his eyes.

'Ri-' he spat out before the same growl took over his voice.

Something popped in his back and when he tried to raise himself to a crouch, he found his body wasn't co-operating. Turning in panic, his head lightened with a strange vertigo as the room appeared to swell, just slightly, around him. Burning pain shot up from his feet to his buttocks and with a series of loud cracks, his legs rearranged themselves. That same, horrible crawling feeling returned to the skin on his feet and legs. With appendages that were more paws than hands now, he pushed himself forward to see thick, black fur visibly pushing out from his pores. It surged past his knees and raced under his boxers where the changes continued unhindered. Roy rolled onto his back and caught a better look at the new changes: his ankle had risen up his calf and the balls of his feet had broadened into powerful, four-toed leopard's paws.

He moaned and tried to crawl toward Riza's room again when sharp, mind numbing agony exploded in his head. It started with his lips as they gradually darkened to black before his upper lip began to split and swell. His nose cracked and began to darken, then moisten as it too pushed out to meet his lips. He yowled in pain as his jaw began lengthening outward to form a perfect leopard's maw. Shortly after, the space tingled as a forest of whisker's sprang up there. The remainder of his teeth grew lethally sharp and his screams of pain stopped for a moment as his tongue stretched and his vocal chords made their final changes.

Writhing on the floor, Roy eventually flung a stiff arm to his head to assess the damage. His ears were absent from their usual place, and he could only assume that they had migrated to the top of his head; where indeed they had. As they moved, they grew a light then heavy fuzz of black fur, becoming slightly pointed all the while. With their migration, a wealth of sounds reverberated through the ever changing colonel's skull.

Now mostly leopard, there was only one more change to undergo. He thought, at least, when he saw the first change, that the array would only have completed a blend of man and beast – but it seemed the design had different intentions. It started with an uncomfortable bulge in the seat of the colonel's boxers and even through the lingering pain, Roy could register what was happening there. After a few anxious moments breathing through heavy, agonised pants, the inevitable finally happened. Blood oozed from the colonel's lower back as a rope of flesh, about the width of a finger, pushed its way out through his skin. It snaked its way downward, growing thicker and more tail like as it went, until it was more than the length of Roy's new, terrifying body. Pins and needles sprang along it as it became covered in sleek black fur. It swayed wildly, not yet controlled by the colonel's mind. In a few more startled seconds, instinct kicked in, and the tail lay itself down behind the crouching colonel with only the slightest curl, right at the tip.

Roy tried his best to assess the situation, but even then, his pained thoughts were slipping away from him as exhaustion began to set in. His enforced calm was roused a few moments later when wild, frantic barking erupted on the other side of the bedroom door.

Riza was awake.

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